Research Labs

Students often participate in faculty research as student research assistants. We offer a wide variety of research programs.

Our Labs

Spirituality and Health LabDr. John Pérez's primary research interest is exploring how spirituality and religiousness influence mental and physical health across the lifespan.

Cognition and Emotion LabDr. Marisa Knight's research interests are focused on the interplay between motivation, emotion, and cognitive functioning across the lifespan.

Family Research LabDr. Shirley McGuire's research involves using a biocontextual approach to study children's social and personality development and adjustment during middle childhood and adolescence.Learn More »

Social Cognition and Judgment LabDr. Saera Khan explores how individuals’ motivation and their processing of social information act to influence their use of stereotypes when judging others.

Foster Care Research Group (FCRG)The FCRG is directed by Dr. Saralyn Ruff, a full-time faculty member in Psychology. Dr. Clausen, who founded the lab in 2000, serves as a consultant to the lab.Learn More »

Mass Emotion and Intergroup Conflict LabDr. Violet Cheung's research focuses on anger, fear and anxiety in concrete contexts such as terrorist attacks, cyber insecurity and the migrant crisis.

Acculturation and Immigrant Health Research LabDr. Kevin Chun's research and publications focus on processes of adaptation and their relation to health and psychosocial adjustment for Asian American immigrants and refugees.

Social Reasoning in Childhood (SeaRCH) LabDr. Aline Hitti's research focuses on developing concepts of fairness, justice, social inequalities, and other’s well-being when it comes to social exclusion of peers and decisions about peer relationships.Learn More »

Learning and Reasoning LabDr. Ed Munnich's research focuses on whether, and to what extent, statistics influence people’s beliefs and preferences about personal and public policy issues.

Aging and Diversity Research LabDr. Lisa Wagner's research has examined both ethnic/racial stereotypes and age-related stereotypes with her most recent research examining stereotype threat and older adults.